Klarinet Archive - Posting 000174.txt from 2005/01

From: Fred Jacobowitz <fbjacobo@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Re: Yiddish
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 18:13:34 -0500

Shalom, y'all

Yiddish is one of the Jewish languages (others include Ladino, and
Hebrew). Yiddish descended form middle-high German about 900CE. The
Jews of Europe (except for Spain and some of the Balkans) spoke Yiddish
among themselves. During the Diaspora (after the temple in Jerusalem
was destroyed for the second time) Jews who left Israel wouldn't sully
the language of the bible - Hebrew - for everyday use so originally
most Jews spoke both Hebrew and the language of whatever country they
lived in. Yiddish started as, it is believed, a trade language - and
became something of a "lingua franca" for Jews. A way to distance
themselves from the Gentiles - especially in unfriendly countries. It
is still quite similar to German but the words are written using the
Hebrew alphabet (and written right-to-left). Over the centuries many
Slavic and Romance words have entered Yiddish such as the Russian(?)
word "shtetl". And, of course, there are myriad Hebrew words and
phrases.
Until the Holocaust, there were probably at least 6 million Yiddish
speakers in Europe. There were newspapers, learned literary societies,
operettas, serious and light drama, etc. All in Yiddish.

Bleib gezunt (be healthy)
Fred Jacobowitz

On Jan 12, 2005, at 5:34 PM, Oliver Seely wrote:

> I'm not a student of this, Sarah, but was Yiddish indigenous to north
> Africa or was it an import?

Kol Haruach Klezmer Band
Ebony and Ivory Duo

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